Andrew Trimble out of Ireland v Italy

Andrew Trimble has been ruled out of Ireland’s opening game in the RBS 6 Nations Championship against Italy after breaking a bone in his right hand. Trimble picked up the injury during the Heineken Cup match at the weekend playing for Ulster against Aironi and follwoing an x-ray today, it was found that he had broken a metacarpal in his hand. This will definitely keep him out of the Italy game and he will have a specialist review this week to determine how long he will be unable to play for.

On other injury news, both Stephen Ferris and Tommy Bowe underwent scans on knee problems and an update on their progress will be available in the next 24 hours.